Two men and two women picnicking on a Vancouver beach with the Lions Gate Bridge in the background. June 1952. Gar Lunney. Credit: Library and Archives Canada. Copyright: Expired
The latest in blog posts, news, and podcasts from the world of Canadian history.
Missed last week’s roundup? Check it out here.
Environmental History
- The most commonly used words in the field of #envhist over the past week were, according to Jessica DeWitt: “Environmental,” “Climate,” and “Nature.”
- Andrew Stuhl and Pey-Yi Chu republished a blog post on NiCHE this week, on cold places as exemplars of environmental history, due to their compression of time.
- Darrin Qualman looked back at the June 1988 “World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security,”and thirty years of climate crisis.
Military History
- Kesia Kvill put together a neat Twitter essay with her family histories of war, intergenerational experience, and PTSD.
- In their latest Flickr album, LAC put together images of the First Special Service Force (aka The Devil’s Brigade), a combined WW2 unit of Canadian and American commandos.See the images for yourself here.
- One of the latest challenges in LAC’s Co-lab (crowdsourced transcription) involves materials from Canada’s Nursing Sisters in WW1.
Archaeology
- In the latest edition of her series on curious Canadian cemeteries, Robyn Lacey profiles the Rockwood Cemetery, in Rockwood, Ontario.
- There is some evidence to suggest that a shipwreck found on a beach in England could be the Avon, built in Nova Scotia in 1843.
- July 18thwas #AskAnArchaeologist day! Check out the answers I got to questions I posed to some of our awesome Canadian archaeologists.
- Check out these cool artifacts from the fur trade that were found in the Winnipeg River in the 1960s.
History Education
- So there is a lot of discussion going on right now about the new Alberta curriculum. While it’s not really history, and therefore doesn’t really qualify for the roundup, I did like this op-ed from the Edmonton Journal on why this overhaul is so important, particularly in relation to the integration of Indigenous perspectives on a range of issues, including history.
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration History
- The City of Toronto will be renaming a street to honour Black activist and human rights lawyer, Charles Roach, in recognition of his work.
- Bashir Mohamed had several great Twitter essays this week, including:
- How first-wave feminists responded to refugees and Black immigration.(spoiler alert: it ain’t good.)
- The experiences of a Black young woman in Edmonton, name unknown, who was denied entry into nursing training at a local hospital, and how the hospital was roundly criticized for this.
- And a short update on Lulu Anderson’s experience, the Black woman who died the Metropolitan Theatre in Edmonton after being denied entry, back in 1922.
- The former inhabitants of Africville, and their descendants, have gathered again for their thirty-fifth reunion.
Indigenous History
- Joanne Hammond put together a fantastic Twitter essay on Indigenous ingenuity and stone age technologies, and why Indigenous peoples never really needed any “help” from settlers.
- Retroactive discussed communal antelope (pronghorn) hunting, via pounds/traps, by Indigenous peoples in Alberta prior to the arrival of European settlers. This blog post focused on two particular archaeological sites where this occurred, Laidlaw and Barnett.
- There is a new article out that suggests that the Dorset of Eastern Canada taught spinning techniques to the Norse, and that they were spinning yarn from muskox and Arctic hare for more than 1000 years prior to this contact. Knitting and history at the same time? I think my brain just exploded.
- More here, in a Twitter essay by Andrew Bresnahan.
- Robert Jago wrote a great Twitter essay about Coast Salish traditional economic systems and the lessons Coast Salish peoples can learn from the past.
- Despite resistance from the current owner, a London Planning Committee has recommended a heritage designation for a home that was built by Oronhyatekha (also known as Peter Martin), a noted Kanien’kehá:ka doctor from the Six Nations of the Grand River.
- Ian Mosby is back in the archives doing research, and he shared some of his finds on Twitter, including:
- The remains of several Inuit from two graves along the eastern Hudson Bay coast, between Umiujaq and Kuujjuaraapik, that were stolen by an archaeologist in 1967, have been returned and will be properly reburied.
- Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an Indigenous (likely Haudenosaunee) village dating back to around 1400, located underneath what is currently the Sherbrooke/Peel intersection in downtown Montreal.
- And there is currently an archaeological dig underway on a four-thousand year-old Tseshaht village site. The dig is being conducted by the Tseshaht First Nation, Parks Canada, the University of Victoria, and the Bamfield Marine Centre.
New France/British North America
- Keith Grant has put together a great Twitter thread of political cartoons from the American Revolution that are suitable for teaching, and many of these include representations of Loyalists.
- Find out about the role that Cleveland played in the 1838 Rebellion of Upper Canada!
- Did you know that Ulysses S. Grant visited Quebec City in 1865? I didn’t. Find out why he was there, in the first of a new series of blog posts by Patrick Lacroix.
Social History
- Find out about the history of food at the Calgary Stampede.
- CBC analyzed fifty years of Stats Can data on food availability. See what they learned!
- Rachel Strodel and Randi Hutter Epstein explored the dangerous price of insulin on Nursing Clio this week, and mentioned Banting’s work.
- Catherine Carstairs explained why pot use in Canada increased substantially in the 1960s. I have two words for you: baby boomers.
- Alberta Cultural Heritage and Tourism profiled Wilf Carter, the co-called “Father of Canadian Country Music.”I will never understand country music.
- Also this week from Alberta Culture and Tourism is a look at some of the other big names in Alberta music history.
- Kesia and I were back this week with our look at the latest episode of CBC’s Back in Time for Dinner, the 1980s!
The History of Gender and Sexuality
- Shirley Tillotson put together a great Twitter essay on pioneering women in tax policy.
- The new Heritage Minute on Jim Egan is now the most-viewed online Heritage Minute!
- The latest biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is for the first woman licensed to practice dentistry in Ontario, Josephine Wells.
- A new report has been released by the Senate Committee on Social Affairs; it details the post-WW2 common practice of forcing unwed mothers to give up their children, and the shameful treatment they received while incarcerated in maternity homes. This practice continued until at least 1971.
- And, on a related subject, find out about the amazing story of Coral Shay, and some of the other women incarcerated at the Belmont Industrial Home in the early part of the twentieth century.
Local History
- Find out about some of the secret histories of Montreal’s business district.
- This year, the Calgary Stampede’s Indian village will be renamed the Elbow River Camp, in honour of the five nations of Treaty 7(Siksika (Blackfoot), Kainai (Blood), Piikani (Peigan), Stoney-Nakoda and Tsuut’ina (Sarcee)). The name refers to the land upon which Calgary now sits, that was known among the Tsuut’ina, Stoney, and Siksika peoples as the “elbow” of the river.
- Did you know that the inventor of the gramophone, Emile Berliner, lived in Montreal for a while?
- Art panels from the old Vancouver bus depot have been found, which closed in 1993, in a crate, under a bridge.
- And meanwhile, some of Calgary’s history is sitting in storage. Outside.
- Le Devoir pays homage to Montreal’s Biosphere. And on one class trip in high school, I had to walk all the way to the top. Up the stairs. Not. Fun.
- Historic Nova Scotia and Shirley Tillotson looked back at the history of the Pentagon building in Halifax.
- Eve Lazarus took us on a tour (both literal and historical) of Vancouver’s St. Clair Hostel-Hotel.
- This week Whistorical looked back at Denis DeBeck, whose letters to his brother Keary between 1943 and 1944 provide an invaluable look at what life was like in BC during WW2.
- Thirty years later, two of the culprits who stole a sphere from a historic sculpture in Jim Koe Park in Inuvik, N.W.T., have confessed, in time for the 60th anniversary of the town. Fortunately, the sphere was returned long before.
- The Nova Scotia Archives remembered the Bedford Magazine Explosion, which took place in Halifax on July 18th, 1945. Wow. Halifax just could not catch a break, huh?
Digital and Public History
- Heritage Winnipeg celebrates its 40thanniversary, and looks back on its own history.
- LAC shared some of the recent documents that have been digitized through their DigiLab, including material from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. The material was digitized for a new online exhibit for CNIB’s 100th anniversary, “That All May Read.” See the exhibit here.
- Radio Canada shared some pretty cool archival pictures from behind the scenes from the 1950s to the 1970s. Except the puppets. Puppets are creepy.
- The Virtual Museum of Canada premiered a new Community Stories online exhibit, “Community Builders: The Organisations, Groups and Fraternities of the Pas,”celebrating philanthropic societies from Pas, Manitoba.
- Kenneth R. Marks has created guides to all of the online historical photographs available for the Canadian provinces and territories:
- This week on Unwritten Histories, Stephanie and I co-authored a blog post on the longevity and sustainability of digital history projects.
Miscellaneous
- This year marks the 100thanniversary of Indy car racing in Toronto.
- So remember how I mentioned in a previous roundup that the EMI Music Canada archive was donated to the University of Calgary? Turns out there is some pretty special stuff in the collection relating to The Beatles.
- The latest entry from The Canadian Encyclopedia is for cyclist Alex Stieda.
Podcasts
- In this week’s episode of Witness to Yesterday, Greg Marchildon spoke with Robert McGill about his latest book, War is Here: The Vietnam War and Canadian Literature.
- History Slam is back this week with a new episode! In it, Sean Graham interviewed Christo Aivalis about his new book, The Constant Liberal: Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour, and the Canadian Social Democractic Left.
- The latest episode of the On War and Society podcast featured an interview with Mark Humphries about the historiography of the Great War in Canada.
- The newest episode of the Juno Beach and Beyond podcast featured an interview with Dan Black, on his research with John Boileau on underaged Canadian soldiers in both World Wars.
- There are two new History Chats episodes this week, but I can’t link to them directly. In any case, they are:
- The 2015 CHA Keynote address by Dean Oliver, “Isn’t All History Public? Knowledge, Wisdom, and Utility in the Great Age of Storytelling.” Unfortunately, they didn’t include the question period, which was interesting to say the least…
- A recording of “The Drake ‘Smoke Screen’ Phenomenon: A Discussion with Dalton Higgins on Drake and Canadian Hip Hop History.”
Better Late Than Never
- Coming next week to CBC is a new documentary on Japanese-Canadians who were forcibly relocated to Manitoba in 1942. Japanese-Canadians had the choice of entering internment camps, or, if they wanted to stay together as a family, relocating to sugar beet farms in Manitoba.
I’m kinda enjoying these shorter roundups, but I know they’re the calm before the storm. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this week’s Canadian history roundup! If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice! And don’t forget to check back on Tuesday for a brand new edition of Best New Articles! See you then!
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